All you need to know about the 2023 Wimbledon Championships
The stage is set for the third Grand Slam of the year as the tennis fraternity gathers for the Wimbledon Championships in London. With no prize for guessing, the eyes of the world will be cast on 23-time major champion Novak Djokovic as he tries to move one step closer to Margaret Court’s all-time record of most singles Grand Slam titles. On the other hand, Iga Swiatek will look to add another piece missing from her Grand Slam puzzle as she targets her first Wimbledon title.
Djokovic will enter the Championships with momentum on his side having conquered the Australia Open and the French Open crowns. A win at this year’s Wimbledon will see him go level with Roger Federer and Martina Navratilova for most Wimbledon singles titles. He will be challenged by the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
In the women’s division, Swiatek will look to better her performance in London where she has never gone past the fourth round. Her best performance at the Slam came in 2021 having been knocked out in the fourth round. Defending champion Elena Rybakina and former French Open Jeļena Ostapenko will also be in the running with Australian Open Champion Aryna Sabalenka.
With less than a week to go for the Championships to start, here are all you need to know for Wimbledon 2023 including schedule, top seeds, and key dates.
Dates
The Wimbledon Championships this year will start a week later than usual as they kick off on Monday, July 3. Before the Championships officially start, the qualifying rounds will take place in all disciplines from Monday, June 26.
The draws for the Championships will be made on Friday, June 30 with eight wildcard entrants also getting a place. This year there will be no Mid-Sunday break at the Wimbledon Championships.
All the ladies and gentlemen’s first to third rounds will take place as usual during the first week, with the fourth round of singles matches split over Sunday and Monday. The singles quarter-finals will take place on the second Tuesday and Wednesday, with the mixed doubles final featuring as the last match on the second Thursday.
Finals Weekend will see the ladies’ singles and gentlemen’s doubles finalists take to the court on Saturday, July 15 with the men’s singles and ladies’ doubles finalists following suit on Sunday, July 16.
Venues
The Wimbledon Championships will be hosted in London’s All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club which has been the home to the historic event since its birth. This year will be the 136th anniversary of the Championships and will take the stage on Monday, July 3. The Princess of Wales has been the patron of the club since 2016 when the then monarch Elizabeth II stepped back from a number of royal patronages.
There are 18 Championship courts with grass surfaces, including the Center and Number 1 Courts which are installed with retractable roofs. Both Center and Number 1 Courts will be at the heart of the action as all high-profile matches are played on the surface. The Championship courts are numbered one to 18, although there is no court number 13 due to superstition.
Like other years, the Center Court will play host to all championship matches at the senior level including the Ladies and Gentlemen’s Championships which will take place on Saturday and Sunday (July 25 and 16 respectively).
Format Explainer
There will be five traditional categories Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles. 128 players will participate in the gentlemen’s category while the same will participate in the ladies’ category. Each singles category will have seven knockout rounds which includes the final.
The total prize money remains $56.52 million in the 2023 Championships after the All England club announced to hike the prize money by 17.1%. The champion in the singles category will get a whopping $2.94 million this year.
Prize distribution tally:
| 2023 | Prize Money £ GBP | Prize Money $ USD | Prize Money € EUR | % Change vs 2021 |
| Winner | £2,350,000 | $2,974,458 | $2,749,036 | 17.50% |
| Runner-up | £1,175,000 | $1,487,229 | $1,374,518 | 11.90% |
| Semifinal | £600,000 | $759,436 | $701,882 | 12.15% |
| Quarterfinal | £340,000 | $430,347 | $397,733 | 9.68% |
| Round 4 | £207,000 | $262,005 | $242,149 | 8.95% |
| Round 3 | £131,000 | $165,810 | $153,244 | 9.17% |
| Round 2 | £85,000 | $107,587 | $99,433 | 8.97% |
| Round 1 | £55,000 | $69,615 | $64,339 | 10.00% |
| Q3 | £36,000 | $45,566 | $42,113 | 12.50% |
| Q2 | £21,750 | $27,530 | $25,443 | 14.47% |
| Q1 | £12,750 | $16,138 | $14,915 | 15.91% |
There will be 32 seeds in the tournament for each singles category which will be released during the draws of the Championships. Unlike any other Grand Slam tournament, Wimbledon reserves the right to change the seeds despite the majority of them being granted on the basis of the ATP and WTA Rankings.
Star Attractions
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina are the defending singles champions
The top attractions in the Championships this year will be Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Stefanos Tsitsipas and others in the men’s category. On the flip side, Swiatek, Sabalenka and Rybakina will hold the torch for the ladies category.
This year, Alcaraz will be the likely Number 1 seed in gentlemen’s while Swiatek will be the ladies’ top seed.
This will be the first Wimbledon Championships since the death of the queen in September 2022 and will be expected to see some changes in the Royal gestures with the Royal Box again the focus of fan attractions.